AF3 Gear: Attune or Save?

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

There is a little confusion about how the scaling gear works and it seems odd that you may not get upgraded every time. This has to do with the transition back to a large release. Previously, we were on a 3-episode cycle where we got certain gear parts for each episode, with varying item levels. Here's how it broke down:

1st Episode
- Chest
- Back
- Legs
- Waist

2nd Episode
- Head
- Hands
- Feet
- Shoulders
- Mask

3rd Episode
- Neck
- Trinket
- Rings
- Utility Belt
- Weapon

Assuming you entered Amazon Fury after playing 24, 25 & 26, replacing the parts from episode 24 will impact your CR the most. Replacing the parts from Episode 26 will not upgrade you. So you'll want to attune the items from the 1st third of the cycle first. If you get a higher blue or purple drop that's, for example a ring (part 3), save it until you open up at least some of the other parts. I would recommend only attuning chest, back, legs and waist until those 4 are blue or purple. Then move up to the next and so on. If you get a blue or purple that's not in the first list, save it, otherwise, you can choose the other item in the loot picker. There are a lot of other useful drops besides gear now.

Also keep in mind that all drops scale now, but blues will help you slightly more than green and purples more than blue.

This division of parts into 3 lists will normalize when we hit the next episode. By then we will have scaled all parts close to the same level and will be free to attune whatever drop we get next.

If you have questions, please feel free to post here or ask me in game.

[roxy spaulding]

some of my observations and opinions:
gear item values seems to be consistently

blue = green + 1
purple = green +2

so I tend to open a green first so i can decide if if the blue might replace anything, like alyssa stated.

if you want to be a min/maxer, DO NOT OPEN PURPLES LOOT DROPS until CR 184 min.
that's when the max value will be for gear drops

the shim'tar gear can be popped based on user choice since those are decently priced to get on the broker. plus you should try to get at least 4 shim'tar pieces to unlock the feat that lets you have a chance to get an OP collection drop.

[Miss Terri]

What I did was save all gear drops, storing purples in my bank, and upgraded the lowest item level when I could. I used blues over greens when I had the choice. I focused only on my healer gear until I reached 184. At that point I could attune purples to healing and any duplicate gear to dps. I also found it best to save my old gear with the crafted mods until that slot got to a 163-164 level and then re-craft the mod.